RBob

iTrader: (1)

Has anyone lowered both ends of the panhard bar equally? Did this help with the jacking affect in right hand turns? I searched a bit here and didn't come across any posts on lowering both ends evenly.

This would be for a stock ride height opposed to lowering only the axle end on a lowered car.

I realize that by lowering the roll center that stiffer springs and/or a larger sway bar would probably be required. But then again, maybe that is part of the key to getting good handling. Doing both: lowering the roll center and stiffening the rear suspension to go with it.

Thoughts or experience on this.

RBob.

hellz_wings

iTrader: (2)

I am buying 2" racecraft drop spindles, along with stiffer springs in the rear to go with that. I have MOOG 5665 right now they are 107lbs springs, i am going to go for something stiffer like a 150lbs spring in the rear and keep my stock swar bar size (34mm front, 24mm rear).

This won't be done for another month because Racecraft is custom building the dropped spindles to work with my UMI tubular a-arms... I will keep you posted.

To answer your PHB question, no I have not done this. I wasn't aware that lowering both ends would help any, or how it would help?

//<86TA>\\

iTrader: (14)

FRAXX would be a better plase to ask this, many people there have their cars setup with lowered panhard bars. I dont think it helps the jacking, thats just the nature of a panhard bar.

I have both sides lowered on my 86, and about 2.5", with stiffer rear springs (250lb) and a smaller 19mm rear bar. The car pushes a bit if i throw it around, but i think that has more to do with my front springs being to stiff (1050), hopefully going to change those later this summer and see what happens.

in place of stiffer rear springs, you could also use softer front springs, depending on your needs and how the car reacts.

Pablo

iTrader: (1)

I have lowered both ends of the panhard bar around 4 inches or so. I also have it set up so the bar is about 1 inch longer than stock. This coupled with 250 inch/lb springs (low 800s up front) and an almost perfectly horizontal bar gives me very good handling.
The jacking effect is mostly due to the panhard bar being at an angle other than horizontal. If the force imparted on the bar is in the same direction as the axial plane of the bar then its not going to want to rotate about either rod end. Of course this is impossible to accomplish 100% but you can significantly reduce the effect. Increasing bar length helps with this as well.

My main reason for lowering the bar was to reduce the roll axis inclination which to my way of thinking reduces "heave". I.E., if you are rolling on an axis inclined to the ground, then you are heaving weight onto the outside front while lifting the inside rear. I've also installed 1/2" taller front ball joints to further reduce this effect.

The car handles very well. Here is some video (see my youtube channel for more)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkgMInrafGQ

I've had the fastest time of the night for every one of these events I have attended with the current combo and have only seen one evoIX run a faster lap in the post event results sheet for a couple of nights I haven't attended

RBob

iTrader: (1)

I was hoping that it would help with the jacking, but didn't think that it would. Unfortunate.

The springs are the stock factory ones. Although they sway bars are the larger 36mm front and matching rear. The car is mostly stock with good-bang-for-the-buck upgrades along the way.

Just like to improve the handling a bit more, while trying to reduce the rear jacking. It may be me, but it just isn't as quick around right turns as left turns.

Pushing isn't too bad, at least can use some throttle to bring the chassis around.

Would I be correct in saying that lowering both ends of the panhard bar was worth the effort?

hellz_wings, not ignoring you, I just can't give a good answer. Lowering the rear roll center changes several things. Foremost is the roll axis that the car rotates on, which directly affects the weight shift/loading on the suspension/tires.

RBob.

hellz_wings

iTrader: (2)

Update: This thread is almost a year old, but I've purchased HOWE 0.75" taller ball joints (which will raise the front roll center by that much), and Unbalanced engineering PHB relocation brackets and I'm going to lower the PHB on both sides by 1" (which lowers the rear roll center by that much). UB recommended 175lbs rear springs with weight jacks to get the rear ride height right (0.5" rear rake) and be able to set corner weights. I'm also going to increase rear track width by 17mm with hubcentric spacers (a whole other topic lol) which will help decrease rear body roll a bit.

The springs+weight jack is 190 plus shipping, the relocation brackets were 165 plus shipping and the Howe ball joints were about 160 plus shipping. Shipping to Canada isn't cheap either lol. I haven't got the rear spacers yet because I might just swap front and rear IROC wheels to see if that will even out the front/rear track width (I'm trying to get front/rear at even track width, at the moment the front sticks out 17mm more than the rear because of LS1 front brake kit and the lack of rear spacers because I have aluminum factory drums.)

I'm going to install everything, adjust them correctly (leveling the PHB and LCAs but make the chassis sides a smidge higher like around 0.5" for both to compensate for driver weight and body roll). I'm curious to finally test this out and see how it affects traction, under/oversteer, steering responsiveness, and braking.

Pablo

iTrader: (1)

What are you running for front springs and which sway bars are you on?

hellz_wings

iTrader: (2)

Front springs are MOOG 5662 IROC replacement 706lbs
Rear springs are MOOG 5665 IROC replacement 107lbs

If I don't get custom springs and weight jacks, I will be cutting the rear springs quite a bit to lower the ride height to match the front lowered height from the extended ball joints. Right now the rear sits about 1.25" higher than the rear (ground to center of fender height comparison, and because I run 4th gen rear spring isolators). So add 0.75" to that and we're talking about a 2" difference between front to rear ride height, so I'll be lowering the rear ride height atleast 1.5" (because I would like a slight 0.5" rake) which means I'll be doing alot of spring cutting and this will hopefully stiffen the spring enough.

Sway bars are stock 34mm / 24mm sway bars with poly bushings and end links. Another option was increasing the rear sway bar to 25mm, and I believe SPOHN has a cromemoly one at that size.

Also, I'm running Koni Yellows with the rears at half rebound and the fronts at half rebound plus one click.

hellz_wings

iTrader: (2)

By the way, there's a great article on Panhard Bar characteristics such as angles, lowering, etc. and how it affects handling.

http://www.afcoracing.com/tech_pages/panhard.shtml